State lawmakers are discussing whether to fold a proposed school readiness program into the state Department of Human Services until voters can decide whether the state should use public money for private preschool.

If the school readiness program eventually expands into an early learning program with more rigorous
educational standards, it would be overseen by the Executive Office on Early Learning.

“Everybody has different concerns about this, and as well they should, because this is a big step for us,” said Rep. Roy Takumi (D, Pearl City-Waipio-Pearl Harbor), the lead House negotiator on early education. “But that said, I do believe that if the Department of Human Services takes on this responsibility, at least in the initial phase, I think that would lead to better efficiencies and be more effective.”

The school readiness program would serve about 3,500 4-year-olds who would have otherwise been eligible for junior kindergarten, which is ending in the 2014-2015 school year. School readiness would technically be a child care program, not an education program, until voters weigh a constitutional amendment allowing public money to be spent on private preschool. If such an amendment is approved, the program could be expanded over a decade into an early learning program that could eventually serve all 18,000 of the state’s 4-year-olds.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie asked lawmakers in a letter Wednesday to consider the shift to the Department of Human Services, hoping to calm fears, particularly in the House, about whether the Executive Office on Early Learning is prepared to quickly launch such a program next year.

The Department of Human Services already oversees Preschool Open Doors, a child care program for low-income children.

Abercrombie wrote that the recommendation was in response to the “vigorous discussion” among lawmakers about his early education initiative, which has struggled in the House.

Takumi and Sen. Jill Tokuda (D, Kailua-Kaneohe), the lead Senate negotiator, have until a Friday deadline to send the language for a November 2014 constitutional amendment to the governor’s office. Negotiators do not have to approve the language until next week, but once it goes to the governor’s office, it cannot change. Two-thirds votes in the House and Senate are required to qualify the amendment for the ballot next year, or majority votes this session and next session.

Negotiators also have until the end of next week to come up with final drafts of the school readiness and early learning bills.

Terry Lock, director of the Executive Office on Early Learning, and Pankaj Bhanot, an administrator for the Department of Human Services, both support the shift.

The department, under the proposal, would give parents a list of qualified providers to choose where to take their 4-year-olds next year.

“I think this (shift) is an interim measure to make sure it gets started right away,” Lock said.

Bhanot said “there is a clear distinction between what it is today and what it will be tomorrow.”